Chef@Home: Chef Todd Leach loves his hometown and being a dad

Family Man

By Steve Barnes/Life@Home

Todd Leach is a Colonie man. Born and raised in the town, Leach owns a Central Avenue restaurant that’s essentially next door to his father’s former hardware store. As a child and young man, he dined often in the restaurants previously housed in the A-frame building that eventually became, in 1996, the Leach-owned TJ’s Café. When Leach and his family moved to a new house a few years back, he technically relocated from Colonie to Loudonville, but since the hamlet is within the town, he’s still a Colonie resident.

“It’s home,” says Leach. “I love the place, love the people.”

TJ’s is a casual eatery, known for familiar pasta preparations, big sandwiches, beefy entrées led by the ever-popular prime rib, and chicken and eggplant parms. “We don’t try to get too fancy. Most of our customers aren’t interested,” Leach says. Case in point: One busy New Year’s Eve he offered a special of miso-glazed halibut, but sold just a handful.

“People know what they’re getting when they come to us. I’m always conscious of being loyal to our brand and trying to provide the product my customers expect,” Leach says.

He’s aided in this effort by his partner of 13 years, Joelle, with whom he’ll celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary this fall. A longtime waitress, she was referred to TJ’s Café before it opened by Leach’s uncle, who was a regular customer of hers at another dining spot.

When she went to TJ’s for the first time, to apply for a job while renovations were still underway, Joelle almost didn’t go in. “There were a lot of shady-looking characters standing around,” says Joelle. “I thought, ‘Do I really want to work there?’”

She was hired and, after a couple of years, began dating the owner. Both had been seeing other people, and outside urging was needed. “My aunt and grandmother spent months telling me she was the one,” Leach says. One evening, while chatting outside the restaurant before Joelle was due to leave for a trip with her then-boyfriend, Leach kissed her.

“The whole time I was gone, all I could think about was him,” she says. “From that first moment he kissed me, I was like, ‘I’m in love.’”

Now Joelle waitresses a couple of nights a week during the school year, when her husband is home with the kids, and picks up a third shift during the summer. (Son Tyler, 5, and his little sister, Abby, 2, enjoy their abundant grandparent time.)

“I’ve always loved waitressing,” Joelle says, who started in the industry when she was 17. “It’s not for everybody. You need to like people, because you definitely meet all kinds of them.” She’s responsible for front-of-house supervision and training, and she manages the restaurant when she’s there and Leach isn’t.

As a result of decades’ worth of combined experience, both have emphatic ideas about how a restaurant should be run. “When we go out to eat, we notice everything,” Joelle says. “He’s critical of the food; I always look at the service.”

Leach says, “I feel like I’m a terrible dinner date. I want to know how they do everything, see what’s going on. But since we both do it, as long as we’re with each other, it’s OK. When other people are with us, I know it must be annoying.”

Fatherhood has mellowed Leach. “I used to be a difficult person to work for,” he says. “I still can be, but it’s not as a bad as it was.”

Joelle says, “He used to be a raging maniac.”

He says, “I never thought I would be the temperamental chef … but now when somebody gets a top sirloin well (done), I’m like, ‘Why bother?’ But at least I keep it in the kitchen.”

Leach, who spent 15 years as a bartender before becoming a proprietor, moved into the kitchen at TJ’s after losing a chef and what he now considers a bad investment as a franchisee in a quick-serve restaurant chain. “It was taking up so much of my time, taking me away from (TJ’s),” he says. “If I invested in Disney and the guy wearing the Mickey (Mouse) suit didn’t show up one day, I wouldn’t get the call to put it on. But I was constantly getting calls” about the franchise.

Now, with his attention firmly refocused on TJ’s and his own consistent hand in the kitchen, Leach has built business back toward its previous peak levels, with food he’s comfortable cooking that he knows pleases customers. “I was determined not to make the mistake of having a menu that would leave me in the lurch if everybody in the building walked out,” he says.

Although Leach typically works 50- to 60-hour weeks, he relishes his role as a dad. “If I spend all of my time working for the sake the family, but I’m gone so much I never see my kids, then what’s the point?” he says. “You’ve got to make sure you’re there for story time, for snuggle time.”

“He’s so good at it. … One of the benefits for us is being a father made him more patient,” Joelle says. “You have to have a certain level of patience with a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old.”

Tyler enjoys helping his father cook. For this evening’s dinner, whenever Tyler can help, he pulls a stool up to the counter or stove to watch, stir, ask questions. For the past two years, the boy has dressed as a chef for Halloween.

“What are you doing?” Tyler asks as he climbs up to watch his father make a crème Anglaise to go with bread pudding for dessert. “I’m making a sauce,” Leach says. “See, I’m stirring eggs in a bowl. Now I put in sugar.”

“Can I stir?”

“Sure.”

Later in the evening, Tyler, who by temperament is precise about many things including the movements of the clock, notices bedtime is imminent. It is 8:50 p.m. “Dad,” he says, “how about I stay up until 9:07?”

“9:07 doesn’t seem so late,” says Leach. “I think that would be OK.”

A little later, Tyler heads to bed. On the way he says, “Dad, look, Dad! I stayed up until 9:10!”

2 Responses

Very well done article about a very nice hard working couple.
My family and I frequent TJ’s about once a week for take -out or eat in and have always enjoyed the comfort of the food and the hospitality shown to us. ~ The Rosch Family, Albany NY

Jan and I have known TJ since he was born. When he learned how to fly a plane, we never thought he would become a chef/owner. I must say we enjoy his cooking more than we would ever enjoy flying.
P.S. Thank heavens the kids look more like Joelle.

Wish you both continued success and we love you.
Jan and Joe

Note: The Times Union is not responsible for posts and comments written by non-staff members.